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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
October-November 2025 35
By David Burke
A
new book examining the battles
between Charles Haughey of
Fianna Fáil and Garret FitzGerald of
Fine Gael overlooks the contrasting
approaches they took in dealing
with Britain’s covert intelligence services.
While FitzGerald was happy to dance with Her
Majesty’s diplomats and spooks, Haughey
always recoiled.
This contrast was never clearer than when
Austin Currie informed Haughey that Brian
Lenihan intended to attend the British-Irish
Association (BIA). Haughey responded
strongly, denouncing the BIA as “a front for
MI5.”
FitzGerald, by contrast, was a founding
member of the BIA.
1. Teacher’s pet
As a child, FitzGerald developed the tactic of
ingratiation. He wrote an article for a book
called Must Try Harder where he recounted
how: “When I was in my second year at school
I decided to show my appreciation of our Irish
teacher, Tadhg Ó Murchú, whom I and the rest
of the class felt to be a good teacher and a very
warm personality.”
FitzGerald decided to make some toee for
him. “Unfortunately, I nearly always under-
cooked the toee which ended up in more or
less liquid form.” He put it in a small tin with
clear instructions to open it the right side up.
All went well at first: “He received the toee
with great pleasure, but when I came into class
the next day I found he was less pleased. He
had failed to read my instructions (perhaps
because they were written in English!) and had
opened the tin the wrong side up, with the
result that the contents had emptied
themselves on to his carpet!”
It is hard to imagine that this was how
Haughey operated at school.
FitzGerald carried this obsequious approach
into his dealings with Whitehall and Britain’s
shadowy intelligence community. The tactic
paid off: while MI6 and the Information
Research Department (IRD) spent decades
vilifying Haughey, they never smeared
FitzGerald. (Details of Haughey’s battles with
MI6 are contained in the last two editions of
Village and my book Enemy of the Crown.)
2. NATO & Rejoining the British
Commonwealth
FitzGerald supported Britain during World War
II and favored Irish membership in the
Commonwealth. Haughey, meanwhile,
famously burned a Union Jack outside Trinity
College on VE Day.
FitzGerald was pro-NATO; Haughey saw
joining NATO as an opportunity to remove
Britain’s presence from Northern Ireland.
In 1969, Haughey — then Minister for
Finance — sought to open dialogue with the
British government of Harold Wilson through
Ambassador Andrew Gilchrist. On Oct.4, 1969,
Gilchrist reported to London that Haughey had
met him at his home, Abbeville, to argue that
reunification of the island was the best solution
to the overall problem. Haughey impressed
upon Gilchrist that he was willing to sacrifice
anything to achieve a united Ireland. He even
expressed support for rejoining the
Commonwealth and granting access to Irish
military bases to the Royal Navy and NATO.
FitzGerald viewed the Commonwealth
favorably on its merits. As a young man, he had
been frustrated by John A. Costello’s first Inter-
Party Government (1948–1951), led by Fine
Gael, because it opted to leave the
Commonwealth. So annoyed was he that he
initially refused to join Fine Gael and even
voted for Fianna Fáil before eventually returning
to Fine Gael. In his first autobiography, All In A
Life, he recounted his disappointment with
Costello: “My unhappiness was intensified
when, a few months after the 1948 election,
the Taoiseach announced the Government’s
intention to declare a republic. At that time this
clearly meant leaving the Commonwealth, for
the evolution of which into a body of sovereign,
independent states John Costello, as Attorney
General, with people like my father, Paddy
McGilligan, and Kevin O’Higgins, had worked
so successfully in the years before 1932.
Moreover, in the months that followed that
announcement the Government also decided
not to join NATO.”
He and his brother Fergus “responded by
initiating a pro-Alliance correspondence in the
Irish Independent, which eventually ran to over
eighty letters.”
3. Snitch
FitzGerald was prepared to inform on fellow
politicians to gain Britain’s trust and favor. In
1970, he was appointed to the Public Accounts
Committee, which was tasked with
investigating how the Irish government had
spent approximately £100,000 allocated in
1969 for relief of distress in Northern Ireland.
A portion of these funds had supported the
Military Intelligence operation that precipitated
the Arms Crisis.
Without informing his committee colleagues,
FitzGerald kept the British Embassy apprised
of some of the committee’s private
deliberations. On Dec.18, 1970, after speaking
with FitzGerald, Ambassador John Peck
POLITICS
36 October-November 2025
and gossip from his associates. Indeed, he
also forbade alcohol consumption during
conferences with the British. Although he was
probably wrong to suggest the BIA was a mere
“front” for British intelligence, it was definitely
infiltrated by it.
One of the BIA’s organizers was Dame
Daphne Park. She had only recently retired
from MI6, where she served as Controller of its
Western Hemisphere Division. She used to
refer to FitzGerald as “Dear Garret.”
Park’s last MI6 post was as Controller of the
Western Hemisphere, where she oversaw
eorts to mislead the Americans into believing
the Provisional IRA was linked to the Soviet
Union and to tarnish Fianna Fáil’s reputation
among Irish-American politicians by
associating them with the IRA.
Park was a member of the Special Forces
Club, where she regularly mingled with ex-SOE,
SAS, and MI5/MI6 personnel.
Margaret Thatcher appointed her to the
Board of the BBC.
Park was a ruthless operator and deeply
involved in the machinations behind the
murder of Patrice Lumumba.
An unapologetic colonialist, she told the
Daily Telegraph in April 2003: “The government
is too worried about speaking out [against
Mugabe] because they think they will be
accused of being colonialist. Well, I don’t think
that’s such a terrible crime.”
FitzGerald befriended Christopher Ewart-
Biggs at the BIA shortly before the Englishman
was appointed ambassador to Ireland in 1976.
Ewart-Biggs had once acted as liaison between
MI6 and GCHQ — the latter still responsible for
tapping the phones of Irish citizens.
7. Bilderberg and The Kilowatt
Group
FitzGerald was also a member of the pro-NATO
Bilderberg Group. He first met Margaret
Thatcher at a Bilderberg conference. Thereafter,
he visited her and her political mentor, Airey
Neave MP, on several occasions at the House
of Commons while she was still leader of the
Opposition.
In 1976, during his tenure as Minister for
Foreign Aairs, Ireland joined the Kilowatt
Group, a network through which MI6, the CIA,
reported to London that FitzGerald “told us last
night that the Committee intends to question
all those involved in the arms trial and to
publish the proceedings in full. Evidence will
be taken from people in the North, whose
identities will, however, be protected. He said
that of the £100,000 or so expended, it
appeared that perhaps half had been spent on
genuine relief works.”
Peck added: “It looks increasingly as if the
proceedings of the committee could be a re-run
of the arms trial and be awkward for Messrs.
Haughey and [Neil] Blaney.”
4. FitzGerald’s Cover-Up of
MI6’s Role in the Arms Crisis
Patrick Crinnion of Garda Intelligence was
convicted of espionage-related crimes in
February 1973 alongside his MI6 handler John
Wyman.
On June 12, 1973, Crinnion wrote to Garret
FitzGerald and other ministers, asserting: “…I
recklessly crusaded against the IRA and
subversives without regard to the double-
edged political weapon the IRA is, and my
personal efforts resulted in a toll which
included precipitating the Fianna Fáil Arms
Crisis…” Crinnion precipitated the crisis by
delivering a note about the arms importation
attempt to Liam Cosgrave, Leader of the
Opposition.
FitzGerald chose to cover this up.
5. The Institute for the Study of
Conflict
Incredibly, FitzGerald helped an MI6 and IRD
propaganda campaign against Haughey (and
others) in the early 1970s.
The Institute for the Study of Conflict (ISC)
was set up by the CIA and managed in
cooperation with MI6. It was run by Brian
Crozier.
FitzGerald joined the ISC in the early 1970s.
One of his contributions was an essay for a
book called Ulster Debate. The foreword was
written by Brian Crozier. The book smeared
John Hume as a criminal.
While FitzGerald may initially have been
unaware of MI6’s hidden involvement, it
became public knowledge later. This explains
the unusual omission of any reference to the
ISC, Ulster Debate and Brian Crozier in
FitzGerald’s otherwise comprehensive
autobiographies.
6. The British-Irish Association
(BIA)
The BIA was founded in 1972 at the behest of
David Astor and others. Astor, then editor of
The Sunday Observer, was an MI6 asset.
In All In A Life, FitzGerald recounted how he
tried to attend as many BIA meetings as
possible, including the inaugural conference
at Magdalen College, Cambridge, in 1973.
In stark contrast, Haughey disliked traveling
to Britain so much that he deliberately chose
flight routes avoiding British airports.
In his memoirs, Austin Currie of the SDLP
(and later Fine Gael for which he was elected a
TD) recalls that in 1982: “In passing, I referred
to a forthcoming meeting of the British-Irish
Association in Oxford. It was held each year,
alternating between Oxford and Cambridge,
and was attended by politicians from Ireland
and Britain, academics, higher civil servants
and opinion-formers generally…The Taoiseach
responded strongly, saying no-one should
attend as the Association was ‘a front for MI5.’
I enquired if Brian [Lenihan] would be attending
and, having been assured he would not be, I
suggested that the Association be informed
since, in the program I had received, the
Minister for Foreign Aairs was hosting a
reception at the conference. Brian, rather
shamefacedly, said he would do so.”
Haughey was clearly afraid the British would
use the BIA to pick up unguarded conversations
October-November 2025 37
and other NATO intelligence agencies
exchanged information on common
adversaries.
In this respect, FitzGerald was the polar
opposite of Haughey, who maintained friendly
ties with the very people the Kilowatt Group
spied upon: the Libyans and the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO). Notably, there
is no mention of Kilowatt in FitzGerald’s
autobiographies.
8. Airey Neave, Thatcher’s
spymaster
FitzGerald’s friend Airey Neave was famous for
his daring escape from Colditz during World
War II and had served in MI9. After World War
II he helped British intelligence set up what has
become known as Gladio, an underground
army originally established to act as a ‘stay
behind’ network in the event Western Europe
was overrun by the Soviet Army. It later became
a dirty-tricks organisation that was responsible
for bombings in Belgium and Italy.
Neave remained close to Britain’s
intelligence community. While serving as
Thatcher’s Shadow Spokesman on Northern
Ireland, Neave reached out to Colin Wallace,
who supplied him with propaganda materials
developed while Wallace was a PSYOP ocer
in Belfast. Neave incorporated these materials
into his speeches.
FitzGerald’s positive relationship with Neave
is documented in All In A Life.
Neave was assassinated by the Irish National
Liberation Army (INLA) in the House of
Commons in March 1979. Had he lived, he was
destined to become Thatcher’s Northern
Ireland Secretary and, in addition, the overseer
of the entire British intelligence community. He
advocated for a military solution to the Troubles
in Ulster.
9. Reporting on Jack Lynch
While Haughey remained an enigma to the
British establishment and a figure of deep
suspicion, FitzGerald continued to be a regular
visitor to the
British Embassy,
where he provided
diplomats with
political
information.
Britain’s National
Archives contain
papers detailing how FitzGerald supplied the
Embassy with information about the
circumstances surrounding Jack Lynch’s
resignation in 1979.
10. The Release of the
Littlejohns
When Jack Lynch
became Taoiseach in
1977, neither he nor
any cabinet member
advocated for the
release of the
Littlejohn brothers
from prison. The
Littlejohns were MI6 agents provocateurs
involved in kidnapping, armed bank robbery,
and petrol bombing of Garda stations in 1972.
Haughey left the brothers incarcerated after
becoming Taoiseach in late 1979.
However, when FitzGerald became
Taoiseach for the first time in 1981, one of his
early initiatives was to release the Littlejohns.
This sent a clear signal to the British
intelligence community that FitzGerald
harboured no particular animosity towards
them. Conversely, Haughey was wary of
anyone associated with MI6.
Although FitzGerald justified the release of
the Littlejohns on purported humanitarian
grounds related to ill health, the brothers were
not ill. Within a year, Kenneth Littlejohn
committed at least one armed robbery in the
UK, was captured, prosecuted, convicted, and
sentenced to six years imprisonment—hardly
the behaviour of a sick man. In 1986, his
younger brother Keith was sentenced to two
years by a Birmingham court for £19,000 in
cheque and credit-card fraud.
11. The Cell
In 1981, FitzGerald was informed about
activities of British agents attached to an
entity called “The Cell”, operating in Dublin.
One of their tactics was to mingle with people
they hoped would provide information about
Haughey.
This information was relayed by a journalist
to the then Lord Mayor of Dublin, Michael
Keating. Keating informed FitzGerald, who
took no action.
12. Duke of Norfolk, 1982
FitzGerald was a friend of the Duke of Norfolk,
an influential Conservative peer in the House
of Lords. During the November 1982 general
election campaign, the Duke’s relationship
with FitzGerald made headlines after Charles
Haughey exposed him as a former British
spymaster.
The Duke had served as Head of the Defence
Intelligence Service (DIS) in the 1960s.
However, in 1982, he attempted to mislead the
Irish media by denying any aliation with MI6
(also known as the Secret Intelligence Service).
No one had actually accused him of being in
MI6. Deceitfully, he relied on the media’s
confusion between MI6, attached to the
Foreign Oce, and the DIS, part of the Ministry
of Defence. At the time, he told reporters: “I
have never been in the Secret Intelligence
Service. Haughey has just made it up. It’s all
absolute nonsense.”
One of the Duke’s close friends was Sir
Brooks Richards, Intelligence Coordinator in
Ireland in 1980. The Duke and Richards
socialised regularly at White’s Club in London.
The Phoenix magazine dubbed FitzGerald
“Sir Garret” for these actions, while Haughey
became known as “Squire Hockey”, a dig at his
lifestyle, the British establishment’s inability
to pronounce his name properly, and their
overall contempt for him.
Wretchedly for FitzGerald, he was the victim
of a cruel parody by Foreign Oce ocials at
an amateur Whitehall Christmas pantomime
where his perceived grovelling to NI Secretary
of State, 1976 – 1979, Roy Mason, provided
much amusement.
And what of Haughey? Incredibly, in her
biography, Thatcher revealed that she actually
admired Haughey while feeling irritated by
FitzGerald.
